System and Method for Using Semi-Orthogonal Multiple Access in Wireless Local Area Networks

ABSTRACT

A method for operating a transmitting device using semi-orthogonal multiple access (SOMA) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) includes determining a first quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) bit allocation, a first coding rate, and a first SOMA group for a first receiving device and a second QAM bit allocation, a second coding rate, and a second SOMA group for a second receiving device in accordance with channel information associated with the first receiving device and the second receiving device, generating a frame including indicators of the first and second QAM bit allocations, the first and second coding rates, and the first and second SOMA groups, and sending the frame to the first receiving device and the second receiving device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/974,998, filed Dec. 18, 2015, entitled “System and Method for UsingSemi-Orthogonal Multiple Access in Wireless local Area Networks,” whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/102,250, filedon Jan. 12, 2015, entitled “System and Method for Using Semi-OrthogonalMultiple Access in WLAN,” all of which applications are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to digital communications, andmore particularly to a system and method for using semi-orthogonalmultiple access (SOMA) in wireless local area networks (WLAN).

BACKGROUND

A common goal of successive generation of radio frequency communicationssystems is to increase the amount of information transmitted in a givencommunications band. As an example, NTT Docomo has proposednon-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) as a candidate for a FifthGeneration (5G) radio access technology. NOMA combines poweroptimization on a per user equipment (UE) basis and superpositioncoding. A detailed description of NOMA is provided in document Saito, etal, “Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) for Cellular Future RadioAccess,” VTC'13, June 2013, which is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

SUMMARY

Example embodiments provide a system and method for usingsemi-orthogonal multiple access (SOMA) in wireless local area networks(WLAN).

In accordance with an example embodiment, a method for operating atransmitting device using semi-orthogonal multiple access (SOMA) in awireless local area network (WLAN) is provided. The method includesdetermining, by the transmitting device, a first quadrature amplitudemodulation (QAM) bit allocation, a first coding rate, and a first SOMAgroup for a first receiving device and a second QAM bit allocation, asecond coding rate, and a second SOMA group for a second receivingdevice in accordance with channel information associated with the firstreceiving device and the second receiving device, generating, by thetransmitting device, a frame including indicators of the first andsecond QAM bit allocations, the first and second coding rates, and thefirst and second SOMA groups, and sending, by the transmitting device,the frame to the first receiving device and the second receiving device.

In accordance with another example embodiment, a method for operating afirst receiving device operating in a semi-orthogonal multiple access(SOMA) wireless local area network (WLAN) is provided. The methodincludes determining, by the first receiving device, a first quadratureamplitude modulation (QAM) bit allocations, a first coding rate, and afirst SOMA group for the first receiving device and a second QAM bitallocation, a second coding rate, and a second SOMA group for a secondreceiving device in accordance with a frame, receiving, by the firstreceiving device, a QAM symbol, demapping, by the first receivingdevice, the QAM symbol in accordance with the first and second QAM bitallocations, thereby producing encoded data, decoding, by the firstreceiving device, the encoded data in accordance with the first andsecond coding rates, thereby producing decoded data, and processing, bythe first receiving device, the decoded data.

In accordance with another example embodiment, a transmitting device isprovided. The transmitting device includes a processor, and a computerreadable storage medium storing programming for execution by theprocessor. The programming including instructions to configure thetransmitting device to determine a first quadrature amplitude modulation(QAM) bit allocation, a first coding rate, and a first SOMA group for afirst receiving device and a second QAM bit allocation, a second codingrate, and a second SOMA group for a second receiving device inaccordance with channel information associated with the first receivingdevice and the second receiving device, generate a frame includingindicators of the first and second QAM bit allocations, the first andsecond coding rates, and the first and second SOMA groups, and send theframe to the first receiving device and the second receiving device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure, and theadvantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptionstaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communications system according to exampleembodiments described herein;

FIG. 2A illustrates an example communications system highlighting anarrangement of STAs according to example embodiments described herein;

FIG. 2B illustrates an example bandwidth and data rate allocation forthe communications system shown in FIG. 2A in an orthogonal frequencydivision multiple access (OFDMA) communications system according toexample embodiments described herein;

FIG. 2C illustrates an example bandwidth and data rate allocation forthe communications system shown in FIG. 2A in a NOMA communicationssystem according to example embodiments described herein;

FIG. 3A illustrates a 16 QAM constellation;

FIG. 3B illustrates an example semi-orthogonal multiple access (SOMA)constellation highlighting bit assignments according to exampleembodiments described herein;

FIG. 3C illustrates an example power modulation division multiple access(PMDMA) (or SOMA) constellation according to example embodimentsdescribed herein;

FIG. 4A illustrates a channel resource diagram for a WLAN using carriersense multiple access (CSMA) according to example embodiments describedherein;

FIG. 4B illustrates a channel resource diagram for a WLAN using SOMAaccording to example embodiments described herein;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of example operations occurring in atransmitting device signaling SOMA configuration information accordingto example embodiments described herein;

FIG. 6 illustrates a first example format of a SOMA frame according toexample embodiments described herein;

FIG. 7 illustrates a second example format of a SOMA frame according toexample embodiments described herein;

FIG. 8 illustrates a third example format of a SOMA frame according toexample embodiments described herein;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example sub-channel allocation according toexample embodiments described herein;

FIG. 10 illustrates a first example format of a SOMA frame highlightingglobal identifier based SOMA signaling according to example embodimentsdescribed herein;

FIG. 11 illustrates a second example format of a SOMA frame highlightingglobal identifier based SOMA signaling according to example embodimentsdescribed herein;

FIG. 12 illustrates a flow diagram of example operations occurring in areceiving device as the receiving device receives and processes datatransmitted using SOMA according to example embodiments describedherein;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a processing system that may be used forimplementing the devices and methods disclosed herein;

FIG. 14 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment processing system1400 for performing methods described herein; and

FIG. 15 illustrates a block diagram of a transceiver 1500 adapted totransmit and receive signaling over a telecommunications networkaccording to example embodiments described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

The operating of the current example embodiments and the structurethereof are discussed in detail below. It should be appreciated,however, that the present disclosure provides many applicable inventiveconcepts that can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts.The specific embodiments discussed are merely illustrative of specificstructures of the embodiments and ways to operate the embodimentsdisclosed herein, and do not limit the scope of the disclosure.

One embodiment relates to using SOMA in a WLAN. For example, atransmitting device determines quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)allocations, coding rates, and SOMA groups for a first receiving deviceand a second receiving device in accordance with channel informationassociated with the first receiving device and the second receivingdevice, generates a frame including indicators of the QAM allocations,the coding rates, and the SOMA groups, and sends the frame to the firstreceiving device and the second receiving device.

The embodiments will be described with respect to example embodiments ina specific context, namely WLAN communications systems that use SOMA toimprove communications performance. The embodiments may be applied tostandards compliant WLAN communications systems, such as those that arecompliant with IEEE 802.11, and the like, technical standards, andnon-standards compliant communications systems, that use SOMA to improvecommunications performance.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communications system 100. Communicationssystem 100 includes an access point (AP) 105 that may serve a pluralityof stations (STA), such as STA 110, STA 112, STA 114, STA 116, and STA118. AP 105 may schedule transmission opportunities for the STAs andsignal information regarding the transmission opportunities to the STAs.Based on the type of the transmission opportunity, the STAs may receivetransmissions or make transmissions in accordance with the scheduledtransmission opportunities. AP 105, as well as a subset of the STAs, mayimplement example embodiments presented herein, namely, power andmodulation domain multiple access, also known as semi-orthogonalmultiple access (SOMA).

In general, APs may also be referred to as base stations, evolved NodeBs(eNBs), NodeBs, controllers, base terminal stations, and the like.Similarly, STAs may also be referred to as mobile stations, mobiles,terminals, users, subscribers, user equipments (UEs), and the like.While it is understood that communications systems may employ multipleAPs capable of communicating with a number of STAs, only one AP, and anumber of STAs are illustrated for simplicity.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example communications system 200 highlighting anarrangement of STAs. Communications system 200 includes an AP 205serving a plurality of STAs, including STA1 210 and STA2 215. The STAsmay also be referred to as receiving devices. STA1 210 may be located inclose proximity to AP 205 and may have a high signal to noise ratio(SNR), e.g., 20 dB, while STA2 215 may be remotely located with respectto AP 205 and may have a low SNR, e.g., values greater than 5 dB, suchas 8 dB. It is noted that proximity, i.e., separation, between AP andSTA is not the only factor in channel quality (low SNR vs high SNR).Although the discussion presented herein focuses on 2 STAs (the high SNRSTA and the low SNR STA), the example embodiments presented herein areoperable with any number of STAs greater than 1.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example bandwidth and data rate allocation 230for communications system 200 in an orthogonal frequency divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) communications system. As shown in FIG. 2B, bothSTA1 210 and STA2 215 may be assigned approximately ½ of the bandwidth.However, since the communications channel for STA1 210 is ofsignificantly better quality, the data rate for STA1 210 issignificantly higher than the data rate for STA2 215 (3.33 bps/HZcompared to 0.50 bps/HZ, for example).

FIG. 2C illustrates an example bandwidth and data rate allocation 260for communications system 200 in a NOMA communications system. In NOMA,both STAs are allocated the same bandwidth but with different powerlevels. As shown in FIG. 2C, STA1 210 is assigned ⅕ of the availabletransmit power and STA2 215 is assigned ⅘ of the available transmitpower. The data rate for STA1 210 is 4.39 bps/HZ and the data rate forSTA2 215 is 0.74 bps/HZ, for example, both of which are higher than inthe OFDMA communications system illustrated in FIG. 2B. NOMA may alsoutilize different time resources for different STAs, with a first slotbeing assigned to STA1 and a second slot being assigned to STA2, forexample.

In NOMA, the decoding of the signal for STA1 210 involves STA1 210receiving a signal that includes both a signal intended for STA1 210 anda signal intended for STA2 215, decoding of the signal intended for STA2215, which may then be used to cancel interference due to the signal forSTA2 215 from the received signal, and then decoding the interferencecancelled signal to obtain the information intended for STA1 210.Therefore, STA1 210 needs to have knowledge of the modulation and codingset (MCS) assigned to STA2 215 in order to decode the signal intendedfor STA2 215. Success in decoding the signal intended for STA1 210 isdependent on the ability to decode the signal intended for STA2 215.

On the other hand, the decoding of the signal for STA2 215 involves STA2215 receiving a signal that includes both a signal intended for STA1 210and a signal intended for STA2 215, and decoding the received signal asthe signal intended for STA2 215 while treating the signal intended forSTA1 210 as noise. Since the signal intended for STA1 210 typically isnot White Gaussian Noise to STA2 215, degradation in decodingperformance may be observed.

As shown above, power domain optimization helps to improve the capacityof communications channels between an AP and two or more STAs. Powerdomain optimization may make use of channel condition, such as channelquality indicators (CQI), channel state information (CSI), and the like,reported by the STAs.

In Modulation Domain Multiple Access (MDMA), hierarchical modulation isused to simultaneously transmit information on different modulationlayers. Each of the different modulation layers may be assigned to adifferent STA or multiple modulation layers may be assigned to a singleSTA. Different Gray code distances may be assigned to differentmodulation layers, thereby providing different levels of protection orreliability for different modulation layers. As an illustrative example,a modulation layer with small reliability may be assigned to a STA withhigh SNR since higher data rates may be achieved with high probabilityof successful decoding, while a modulation layer with large reliabilitymay be assigned to a STA with low SNR since successful decoding ispreferred over high data rate. MDMA is described in detail in U.S. Pat.No. 8,325,857, issued Dec. 4, 2012, which is hereby incorporated hereinby reference.

In a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation, some bits aremore reliable than others. FIG. 3A illustrates a 16 QAM constellation300. Each constellation point in 16 QAM constellation 300 represents 4bits, e.g., i₁i₂q₁q₂, where the i bits are the in-phase components (thei-axis) and the q bits are the quadrature-phase components (the q-axis).When the constellation points are mapped using a Gray code, for exampleconstellation point 305 represents 1101, constellation point 307represents low, constellation point 309 represents 1100, andconstellation point 311 represents 0101, adjacent constellation pointsdiffer by a single bit. As an illustrative example, constellation points305 and 307 differ at bit i₂, while constellation points 305 and 309differ at bit q₂ and constellation points 305 and 311 differ at bit i₁.

In 16 QAM constellation 300, bits i₁ and q₁ are the most reliable bits,while bits i₂ and q₂ are the least reliable bits. Similarly, in a 64 QAMconstellation with each constellation point representing 6 bits(i₁i₂i₃q₁q₂q₃), bits i₁ and q₁ are the most reliable bits, bits i₂ andq₂ are the medium reliable bits, and bits i₃ and q₃ are the leastreliable bits. In a 256 QAM constellation with each constellation pointrepresenting 8 bits (i₁i₂i₃i₄q₁q₂q₃q₄), bits i₁ and q₁ are the mostreliable bits, bits i₂ and q₂ are the first medium reliable bits, bitsi₃ and q₃ are the second medium reliable bits, and bits i₄ and q₄ arethe least reliable bits.

According to an example embodiment, the more reliable bits are scheduledfor a STA with a lower SNR channel and the less reliable bits arescheduled for a STA with higher SNR channel. The assignment of the morereliable bits to the lower SNR channel increases the probability ofsuccessful decoding, while the assignment of less reliable bits to thehigher SNR channel trades the probably of successful decoding for higherdata rates.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example SOMA constellation 350 highlighting bitassignments. As shown in FIG. 3B, bits i₂ and q₂ 355 are assigned toSTA1 and bits i₁ and q₁ 360 are assigned to STA2.

According to an example embodiment, power domain optimization (orsimilarly, power allocation) and MDMA are combined to produce a multipleaccess radio technology that offers improved capacity of communicationschannels and un-equal protection of data for different STAs. Thecombination is referred to as power and modulation division multipleaccess (PMDMA). Power domain optimization provides improved capacity ofcommunications channels, while MDMA offers un-equal protection of datafor different STAs. PMDMA decoding does not involve one STA having todecode the data of another STA. However, PMDMA allows the structure ofinterference from one STA to be used to improve the decoding performanceat another STA. It is noted that PMDMA may also be referred to assemi-orthogonal multiple access (SOMA), since for some STAs (i.e., thehigh SNR STAs), the signal for the low SNR STAs may be considered asbeing no interference, and hence, orthogonal to the signal for the highSNR STAs. In the case of the low SNR STAs, the signal for the high SNRSTAs is treated as interference to the signal for the low SNR STAs, andhence, non-orthogonal.

According to an example embodiment, the QAM constellation used in PMDMAis jointly mapped for STAs involved in the transmissions. The jointmapping of the QAM constellation for the STAs may enable STAs havinghigh quality communications channels to decode signals intended for itwithout having to decode the signals intended for STAs with low qualitycommunications channels. The signals intended for STAs with low qualitycommunications channels may be considered to be orthogonal to thesignals intended for STAs with high quality communications channels. Nothaving to decode signals intended for other STAs enable a reduction inprocessing complexity, as well as a reduction in signaling overhead.

FIG. 3C illustrates an example PMDMA (or SOMA) constellation 375. PMDMAconstellation 375 is a 4-bit 16-QAM constellation. The 4 bits may belabeled b₃b₂b₁b₀, with bits b₁b₀ 380 being assigned to STA1 and bitsb₃b₂ 385 being assigned to STA2. For discussion purposes, consider acommunications system as described in FIG. 2A, where STA1 and an APshare a high SNR communications channel and STA2 and the AP share a lowSNR communications channel. Since the communications channel betweenSTA1 and the AP is a high quality channel, a low reliability QAM layer(comprising bits b₁b₀ 380) may be assigned to modulate data transmittedon the high quality communications channel since successful decodingprobability is high and unneeded reliability is traded for higher datarates. A QAM layer comprises two bits of the correspondingLog-Likelihood Ratios (LLRs). Conversely, the communications channelbetween STA2 and the AP (or eNB) is a low quality channel. Hence, a highreliability QAM layer (comprising bits b₃b₂ 385) may be assigned tomodulate data transmitted on the low quality communications channel totrade-off data rate for improved decoding probability. The power controlappears in PMDMA constellation 375 as a distance between an origin of asub-constellation to a constellation point. For STA1, power control 390may be based on an averaged power for the sub-constellation, with anorigin for the sub-constellation being in the middle of thesub-constellation. For STA2, power control 395 may be based on anaveraged power for the QAM constellation from an origin of the QAMconstellation to the center of each sub-constellation. A ratio of theaverage power for the two STAs may be referred to as a power offset,

Power_Offset=power_low_SNR_STA:power_high_SNR_STA=power_STA2:power_STA2,

and is often expressed in dB.

Additional discussion of SOMA, SOMA constellations, and the like, isprovided in depth in co-assigned US Patent Application entitled “Systemand Method for Semi-Orthogonal Multiple Access”, application Ser. No.14/589676, filed Jan. 5, 2015, which is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

FIG. 4A illustrates a channel resource diagram 400 for a WLAN usingcarrier sense multiple access (CSMA). In a communications system usingCSMA, only transmissions to or from a single STA is permitted (such aspacket for STA1 405) on a single channel or carrier. Furthermore, beforeanother transmission to or from another STA is allowed to take place(such as packet for STA2 410), channel contention 415 must occur and thetransmission to or from the other STA (e.g., packet for STA2 410) willonly take place if the device making the transmission obtains access tothe channel or carrier. The overhead incurred in channel contention 415may reduce overall communications system performance.

FIG. 4B illustrates a channel resource diagram 450 for a WLAN usingSOMA. With SOMA, two or more STAs may be scheduled in a single channelor carrier. A shown in FIG. 4B, the single channel or carrier may carrya packet for STA1 455 as well as a packet for STA2 460. Padding 465 maybe used if needed to match the size of packet for STA1 455 and packetfor STA2 460. Although shown in FIG. 4B as supporting two transmissions,transmissions to two or more stations may be supported with an upperlimit on the number of simultaneous transmissions being set by the sizeof the QAM constellation being used.

Generally, in SOMA the superposed constellation (i.e., the SOMAconstellation) will be informed to the scheduled STAs (in WLAN systemsor STA in 3GPP LTE systems) with exact bit locations (QAM level thateach STA corresponds to) as well as power level which will indicate thepower level of superposed constellation. The near STA (e.g., the highquality channel STA) may demodulate the received packet with the MCS ofthe superposed constellation and extracts the bits corresponding only toitself (the near STA). However, the far STA (e.g., the low qualitychannel STA) may demodulate the received packet in the MCS of superposedconstellation and extracts the bits only corresponding to itself (thefar STA), or it may demodulate the received packet in the actual MCScorresponding to the far STA, because the actual constellationscorresponding to the near STA may be regarded as a noise by the far STA.

Usually, SOMA scheduling is available for multiple STAs when the STAsare under the same beam-forming (BF). Therefore, the signal to noiseratio (SNR) information of a channel is typically insufficient toschedule multiple STAs when SOMA is used. Furthermore, information aboutthe BF is also needed to schedule the multiple STAs. The current IEEE802.11 channel sounding protocol, which is originally designed for BFmay be used to support SOMA scheduling. It is noted that when BF is notbeing used, the channel SNR information of each STA may be sufficient toselect STAs for SOMA scheduling.

According to an example embodiment, the information needed for SOMAscheduling is signaled to scheduled STAs. As an example, a SIG field ina preamble portion of a physical layer header of next generation WLANsystems is a suitable place for such signaling. However, the SIG fieldis not the only possible location for the signaling. The signaling mayalso be included in a media access control (MAC) header.

According to an example embodiment, SOMA group identifier (GID) basedcontrol signaling is used to apply SOMA in WLAN systems. GID is amechanism in which multiple STAs may be identified using a reducednumber of bits. In WLAN systems, STAs are normally identified globallyby their MAC address (usually 6 bytes long) or locally by an associationidentifier (AID) assigned to them by an association access point. TheAID is usually two bytes long. Using either the MAC address or the AIDfor STA identification may result in high system overhead. STAs may beplaced into SOMA groups that are identified by a GID. The GID may be afew bits in length, which can significantly reduce system overhead whenit comes to STA identification. GID may also be used to identifymulti-user (MU) groups for downlink MU transmission, as well as fororthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) resourceallocation where the number of streams for MU-MIMO are combinedtogether.

According to an example embodiment, a SOMA GID (S-GID) is used toidentify those STAs participating in a SOMA transmission. The S-GID maybe used to support STA grouping (e.g., high SNR STAs and low SNR STAs,high SNR, medium SNR, and low SNR STAs, and the like). In addition toSTA identification information, SOMA signaling may also include (but notnecessarily limited to):

-   -   Which bits in a constellation belongs to which STA;    -   The MCS used for each STA (or superposed MCS for all SOMA        scheduled STAs; and    -   The power offset for each STA (useful for PMDMA).

Since SOMA scheduling may be performed on top of OFDMA scheduling, itmay be possible to replace a number of space-time streams (NSTS) fieldwith SOMA signaling. Details of the NSTS field and its use are providedin co-assigned US Provisional Patent Application entitled “System andMethod for a Preamble Supporting OFDMA Mapping”, Application No.61/991024, filed May 9, 2014, which is hereby incorporated herein byreference. Additionally, since there are multiple variants of SOMA(e.g., MDMA and PMDMA are classified as SOMA), control signaling for thedifferent variants of SOMA may be used. As an example, a one or two bitindicator (or as many bits as are needed) of SOMA scheduling in acorresponding resource unit is used.

In the case of MDMA, only the QAM level and MCS (whether it may be thesuperposed MCS or individual MCS of scheduled STAs) may be necessary forthe scheduled STAs. In the SIG field of a SOMA scheduled OFDMA PPDU, aresource allocation using the GID as presented in incorporated U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/991024 may be used. Differencesinclude replacement of the NSTS with the MCS of each SOMA scheduled STA.The position of the MCS of each SOMA scheduled STA in the SIG field maybe determined by the GID management frame. Therefore, the QAM level mayalso be determined by the STA position information in the groupidentifier of the GID management frame.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of example operations 500 occurring ina transmitting device signaling SOMA configuration information.Operations 500 may be indicative of operations occurring in atransmitting device, such as an AP, as the transmitting device signalsSOMA configuration information to STAs served by the transmittingdevice.

Operations 500 begin with the AP determining channel information for theSTAs (block 505). The channel information may be received from the STAs.The channel information may be in the form of CQI, CSI, or otherinformation related to channel quality, channel condition, and the like.The AP determines a power allocation, QAM layer allocation, SOMA groups,MCS level, and the like, for a plurality of STAs in accordance with thechannel information associated with the plurality of STAs (block 510).As an illustrative example, the AP may select a STA with a high qualitychannel (such as STA1 of FIG. 2A) and a STA with a low quality channel(such as STA2 of FIG. 2A) and determine a power allocation and a QAMlayer allocation for each of the STAs. Alternatively, the AP may selectmore than 2 STAs. The AP may determine a coding rate for the subset ofthe STAs reporting channel information.

The AP generates a SOMA frame (block 515). The SOMA frame may includeinformation about power allocations, QAM layer allocations, S-GIDs, MCSlevel, and so on, for each SOMA group. Detailed discussions of differentexample formats of SOMA frames are provided below. The AP sends the SOMAframe (block 520).

According to an example embodiment, the STA position information in theSOMA GID management frame indicates the sequence of the most reliablebits, medium reliable bits, and so on, to the least reliable bits whichcorrespond to the QAM levels. As an illustrative example, a first STA inthe group may be assigned the most reliable bits, the second STA in thegroup may be assigned the medium reliable bits, and the like. Thesequence from the most to the least reliable bits may be arbitrarilychanged, and may be implementation specific.

FIG. 6 illustrates a first example format of a SOMA frame 600. SOMAframe 600 includes SOMA information for one or more SOMA groups. Thefollowing is a discussion of SOMA information for SOMA group 1605, butthe format of the SOMA information for other SOMA groups are the same.For SOMA group 1605, the SOMA information includes:

-   -   a SOMA indication (SI) bit 610 indicating that the frame is a        SOMA frame, to differentiate it from a GID frame, for example.    -   a GID field 615 that is N bits long, where N is an integer value        (example values for N include 8, 9, 10, 11, and the like). The        value in the GID field uniquely identifies OFDMA and/or SOMA        groups of M STAs, where M is an integer value (example values        for M include 2, 3, 4, 5, and the like). Non-unique        identification of some SOMA groups is also possible, and may        lead to overloading of available GID space. In such a situation,        STAs may rely on other identifiers, such as MAC headers, to        resolve ambiguities.

Fields MCS-A 620, MCS-B 625, and the like (which depends on the numberof scheduled SOMA STAs) of SOMA frame 600, represent the MCS of eachscheduled SOMA STA. As an example, MCS-A 620 represents the MCS for STAA, MCS-B 625 represents the MCS for STA B, and the like. A limit on thenumber of scheduled SOMA STAs may be M, while practical limitations maylimit M to 4 in the case of superposed constellations, e.g., 256 QAMconstellation. A MCS for a single scheduled SOMA STA may also belimited. As an example, a MCS may be limited to 3 bits because a 64 QAMmay be the largest constellation that each scheduled SOMA STA may beassigned.

A continuation (C) bit 630 may be added to indicate the end of theallocated groups. SOMA frame 600 may continue for additional SOMAgroups.

Each allocated group may be assigned to one or more sub-carrier groups(SCG). A SCG may also be referred to as a resource unit or sub-channelgroup. As shown in FIG. 6, an implicit SCG index is used so that SCG 1is assigned to a first group, SCG 2 is assigned to a second group, andthe like. In another example embodiment, the SCG index may be explicitlyincluded in the SIG field. Explicitly assigning the SCG to a group mayresult in increased overhead that is dependent upon the number of SCGsthat can be allocated.

FIG. 7 illustrates a second example format of a SOMA frame 700. SOMAframe 700 highlights the situation where the SCG index is explicitlyspecified in the signaling, i.e., SCG fields including SCGX 715, SCGY720, and SCGZ 725. SOMA frame 700 also highlights a situation where morethan one SCG is allocated to a group, e.g., SCGX 715, SCGY 720, and SCGZ725 begin allocated to SOMA group GID 710. MCS-A 730 and MCS-B 735represents the MCS for STA A and STA B, respectively. It is noted that aSOMA indication bit 705 (shown in FIG. 7) may not be needed if a singleGID space is used with some of the GID values are allocated to S-GIDuse. Continuation (C) bit 740 may be added to indicate the end of theallocated groups. SOMA frame 700 may continue for additional SOMAgroups.

According to an example embodiment, a power offset is also signaled inthe SOMA frame. When PMDMA is used, the power offset, in addition to theinformation signaled for MDMA, is signaled. The adaptive powerallocation for scheduled SOMA STAs may depend upon the power divisionlevel. As an illustrative example, in a two STA situation, if one STA isscheduled with ¾ of the total transmit power, the other scheduled STAmay be allocated with ¼ of the transmit power. In a similar situation,⅘and ⅕ power allocations are possible as, are ⅗ and ⅖ power allocations,and the like. In a situation where more than two STAs are scheduledtogether, three power level allocations are needed. In consideration ofall of these factors, the following power levels may be available: ⅚,4/6, 3/6, 2/6, ⅙, ⅘, ⅗, ⅖, ⅕, ¾, 2/4, ¼, and the like, depending on thepower allocation. It may be possible to quantize the available powerlevels and indicate the quantized power levels in the SIG field togetherwith SOMA GID based scheduling allocations. As an illustrative example,consider a situation where the following power levels are available ⅘,⅗, ⅖, ⅕, ¾, 2/4, and ¼, then there are 7 power levels. Therefore, 3 bitsis sufficient to indicate the power level.

FIG. 8 illustrates a third example format of a SOMA frame 800. SOMAframe 800 is similar to SOMA frame 600 in that it is individual MCSbased. SOMA frame Boo includes, for each SOMA group, power offsetinformation for each scheduled SOMA STA (e.g., PWR-A, PWR-B, and so on,fields). As an example, for SOMA group 1805, SOMA frame 800 includes aSI bit 810, a GID field 815, MCS fields for STA of SOMA group 1 (e.g.,MCS-A 820 and MCS-B 825), as well as power offset information for STAsof SOMA group 1 (e.g., PWR-A 830 and PWR-B 835), and a C bit 840 toindicate the end of the allocated groups. Since the total power needs toadd up to 1, the number of power offset information fields for a groupmay be one fewer than the number MCS fields for the same group, althoughin FIG. 8, the number of MCS fields and power offset information fieldsis equal. As an example, as shown in FIG. 8, some groups include twoscheduled SOMA STAs. Therefore, two MCS fields are needed, but only onepower offset information field is needed since if one power offsetinformation field (e.g., PWR-A) corresponds to STA A, then the poweroffset for STA B is implicitly 1-PWR-A. Therefore, signaling the poweroffset information field for STA B is unnecessary. SOMA frame 800 usesan implicit SCG index, so SCG 1 is assigned to the first group, SCG 2 isassigned to the second group, and the like. Explicit SCG index may alsobe used. With explicit SCG indexing, a variation of SOMA frame 700 ofFIG. 7 may be used and adding power offset information fields for thevarious scheduled SOMA STAs.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example sub-channel allocation 900. Sub-channelallocation 900 may specify an allocation of spectrum to different STAs.Sub-channel #i 905 may be allocated for OFDMA MU usage and assigned foruse by STAs that are identified based on their GID. Sub-channel #j 910may be allocated for OFDMA SU usage and assigned for use by STAs thatare identified based on their STA identifier, such as their AID, whilesub-channel #k 915 may be allocated for OFDMA SOMA usage and assignedfor use by STAs that are identified by the S-GID.

According to an example embodiment, managing S-GIDs is achieved usingGID management frames, such as those presented in IEEE 802.11ac, whereSTAs are assigned to different groups and the position of a STA in agroup is determined. S-GID may be drawn from a separate GID space(separate from the GID used for OFDMA MU, for example). Alternatively,S-GID may share the same GID space with OFDMA MU. In such a situation,the GID space may be divided between the two types of GID (S-GID andOFDMA MU GID). As an illustrative example, GIDs from 0 to 15 may be usedfor S-GID and GIDs greater than 15 may be used for OFDMA MU.

As discussed previously, MAC address or AID may be used for STAidentification at the expense of increased overhead. However, STAidentification using a global identifier may be used for SOMA signaling.In such a situation, SOMA signaling may include the following fields:

-   -   SOMA/SU/MU—indicating the type of transmission;    -   STA AID—identifying the STA;    -   SCG index—identifying the sub-channel;    -   Bit allocation—identifying which reliability bits are assigned        to the STA (e.g., High/Medium/Low, High/Low, and the like);    -   MCS—identifying the MCS and constellation allocated to the STA;        and    -   PWR—identifying the power offset information for the STA.

FIG. 10 illustrates a first example format of a SOMA frame 1000highlighting global identifier based SOMA signaling. The fields in SOMAframe 1000 include a SOMA/SU/MU (SSM) field 1005 including an indicatorof the type of transmission, a STA ID field 1010 identifying the STA, anNSTS field 1015 indicating a number of spatial streams, a TXBF field1020 indicating if transmit beamforming is used, a SCGX field 1025indicating a sub-carrier group used, a High/Medium/Low (HML) field 1030indicating which reliability bits assigned to the STA, a MCS field 1035indicating the MCS and constellation allocated to the STA or asuperposed MCS and constellation for the SOMA scheduled STAs, a POWEROFFSET field 1040 indicating power offset information for the STA, and aCODING field 1045 indicating usage of a low density parity check (LDPC)code. The fields may be repeated for each STA with a SOMA resourceallocation.

According to an example embodiment, SOMA information is signaled in ahigh-efficiency signal B (HE-SIGB) field. In the IEEE 802.nax technicalstandards, a packet preamble includes two HE-SIGB fields, a firstHE-SIGB field that is a common subfield that includes information forall STAs and a second HE-SIGB field that is a STA specific subfield thatincludes information for a specific STA or group of STAs. The SOMAinformation may be signaled in the STA specific subfield. The SOMAinformation utilize the format used in signaling SU-MIMO information,with STA ID, NSTS, and TXBF being information common to both SU-MIMO andSOMA. However, a SI indicator is used to differentiate SOMA informationfrom SU-MIMO information. Therefore, if the SI indicator is a firstvalue (e.g., 1), then SOMA is being used, and if the SI indicator is asecond value (e.g., 0), then SU-MIMO is being used.

FIG. 11 illustrates a second example format of a SOMA frame 1100highlighting global identifier based SOMA signaling. The fields in SOMAframe 1100 include a STA ID field 1105 identifying the STA, an NSTSfield 1110 indicating a number of spatial streams, a TXBF field 1115indicating if transmit beamforming is used, a SI field 1120 indicatingthe use of SOMA or SU-MIMO, a MCS field 1125 indicating the MCS andconstellation allocated to the SOMA scheduled STA(s), a bit level field1130 indicating which bits corresponds to which STA, and a coding field1135 indicating LDPC usage.

STA ID field 1105, NSTS field 1110, and TXBF field 1115 may shareinformation common for both SU-MIMO and SOMA. SI field 1120differentiates SOMA from SU-MIMO. If SI field 1120 indicates SOMA (e.g.,if SI field 1120 contains a 1), the contents of MCS field 1125represents the MCS for all SOMA scheduled STAs and the contents of bitlevel field 1130 represents which bits correspond to which SOMAscheduled STA. If SI field 1120 indicates SU-MIMO (e.g., if SI fieldcontains a 0), the contents of MCS field 1125 represents the MCS ofscheduled STA and the contents of bit level field 1130 indicates someother information and the contents of coding field 1135 indicates LDPCusage.

FIG. 12 illustrates a flow diagram of example operations 1200 occurringin a receiving device as the receiving device receives and processesdata transmitted using SOMA. Operations 1200 may be indicative ofoperations occurring in a receiving device, such as a STA, as thereceiving device receives and processes data transmitted using SOMA.

Operations 1200 begin with the STA determining a power allocation, a QAMconstellation, QAM layer allocation, SOMA groups, MCS level, and thelike (block 1205). The STA may determine the power allocation, QAMconstellation, QAM layer allocation, SOMA groups, MCS level, and thelike, from a SOMA frame received by the STA. The STA may determine theinformation in accordance with its SOMA group membership. The STAreceives a QAM symbol (block 1210). The STA de-maps the QAM symbol usingthe QAM constellation, producing encoded data (block 1215). The STAdecodes the encoded data (block 1220). The STA processes the decodeddata (block 1225).

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a processing system 1300 that may be usedfor implementing the devices and methods disclosed herein. In someembodiments, the processing system 1300 comprises a UE. In otherembodiments, the processing system 1300 comprises a network controller.Specific devices may utilize all of the components shown, or only asubset of the components, and levels of integration may vary from deviceto device. Furthermore, a device may contain multiple instances of acomponent, such as multiple processing units, processors, memories,transmitters, receivers, etc. The processing system may comprise aprocessing unit 1305 equipped with one or more input/output devices,such as a human interface 1315 (including speaker, microphone, mouse,touchscreen, keypad, keyboard, printer, and the like), display 1310, andso on. The processing unit may include a central processing unit (CPU)1320, memory 1325, a mass storage device 1330, a video adapter 1335, andan I/O interface 1340 connected to a bus 1345.

The bus 1345 may be one or more of any type of several bus architecturesincluding a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, videobus, or the like. The CPU 1320 may comprise any type of electronic dataprocessor. The memory 1325 may comprise any type of system memory suchas static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory(DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), read-only memory (ROM), a combinationthereof, or the like. In an embodiment, the memory 1325 may include ROMfor use at boot-up, and DRAM for program and data storage for use whileexecuting programs.

The mass storage device 1330 may comprise any type of storage deviceconfigured to store data, programs, and other information and to makethe data, programs, and other information accessible via the bus 1345.The mass storage device 1330 may comprise, for example, one or more of asolid state drive, hard disk drive, a magnetic disk drive, an opticaldisk drive, or the like.

The video adapter 1335 and the I/O interface 1340 provide interfaces tocouple external input and output devices to the processing unit 1305. Asillustrated, examples of input and output devices include the display1310 coupled to the video adapter 1335 and the mouse/keyboard/printer1315 coupled to the I/O interface 1340. Other devices may be coupled tothe processing unit 1305, and additional or fewer interface devices maybe utilized. For example, a serial interface such as Universal SerialBus (USB) (not shown) may be used to provide an interface for a printer.

The processing unit 1305 also includes one or more network interfaces1350, which may comprise wired links, such as an Ethernet cable or thelike, and/or wireless links to access nodes or different networks 1355.The network interface 1350 allows the processing unit 1305 tocommunicate with remote units via the networks 1355. For example, thenetwork interface 1350 may provide wireless communication via one ormore transmitters/transmit antennas and one or more receivers/receiveantennas. In an embodiment, the processing unit 1305 is coupled to alocal-area network or a wide-area network 1355 for data processing andcommunications with remote devices, such as other processing units, theInternet, remote storage facilities, or the like.

FIG. 14 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment processing system1400 for performing methods described herein, which may be installed ina host device. As shown, the processing system 1400 includes a processor1404, a memory 1406, and interfaces 1410-1414, which may (or may not) bearranged as shown in FIG. 14. The processor 1404 may be any component orcollection of components adapted to perform computations and/or otherprocessing related tasks, and the memory 1406 may be any component orcollection of components adapted to store programming and/orinstructions for execution by the processor 1404. In an embodiment, thememory 606 includes a non-transitory computer readable medium. Theinterfaces 1410, 1412, 1414 may be any component or collection ofcomponents that allow the processing system 1400 to communicate withother devices/components and/or a user. For example, one or more of theinterfaces 1410, 1412, 1414 may be adapted to communicate data, control,or management messages from the processor 1404 to applications installedon the host device and/or a remote device. As another example, one ormore of the interfaces 1410, 1412, 1414 may be adapted to allow a useror user device (e.g., personal computer (PC), etc.) tointeract/communicate with the processing system 1400. The processingsystem 1400 may include additional components not depicted in FIG. 14,such as long term storage (e.g., non-volatile memory, etc.).

In some embodiments, the processing system 1400 is included in a networkdevice that is accessing, or part otherwise of, a telecommunicationsnetwork. In one example, the processing system 1400 is in a network-sidedevice in a wireless or wireline telecommunications network, such as abase station, a relay station, a scheduler, a controller, a gateway, arouter, an applications server, or any other device in thetelecommunications network. In other embodiments, the processing system1400 is in a user-side device accessing a wireless or wirelinetelecommunications network, such as a mobile station, a user equipment(UE), a personal computer (PC), a tablet, a wearable communicationsdevice (e.g., a smartwatch, etc.), or any other device adapted to accessa telecommunications network.

In some embodiments, one or more of the interfaces 1410, 1412, 1414connects the processing system 1400 to a transceiver adapted to transmitand receive signaling over the telecommunications network. FIG. 15illustrates a block diagram of a transceiver 1500 adapted to transmitand receive signaling over a telecommunications network. The transceiver1500 may be installed in a host device. As shown, the transceiver 1500comprises a network-side interface 1502, a coupler 1504, a transmitter1506, a receiver 1508, a signal processor 1510, and a device-sideinterface 1512. The network-side interface 1502 may include anycomponent or collection of components adapted to transmit or receivesignaling over a wireless or wireline telecommunications network. Thecoupler 1504 may include any component or collection of componentsadapted to facilitate bi-directional communication over the network-sideinterface 1502. The transmitter 1506 may include any component orcollection of components (e.g., up-converter, power amplifier, etc.)adapted to convert a baseband signal into a modulated carrier signalsuitable for transmission over the network-side interface 1502. Thereceiver 1508 may include any component or collection of components(e.g., down-converter, low noise amplifier, etc.) adapted to convert acarrier signal received over the network-side interface 1502 into abaseband signal. The signal processor 1510 may include any component orcollection of components adapted to convert a baseband signal into adata signal suitable for communication over the device-side interface(s)1512, or vice-versa. The device-side interface(s) 1512 may include anycomponent or collection of components adapted to communicatedata-signals between the signal processor 1510 and components within thehost device (e.g., the processing system 600, local area network (LAN)ports, etc.).

The transceiver 1500 may transmit and receive signaling over any type ofcommunications medium. In some embodiments, the transceiver 1500transmits and receives signaling over a wireless medium. For example,the transceiver 1500 may be a wireless transceiver adapted tocommunicate in accordance with a wireless telecommunications protocol,such as a cellular protocol (e.g., long-term evolution (LTE), etc.), awireless local area network (WLAN) protocol (e.g., Wi-Fi, etc.), or anyother type of wireless protocol (e.g., Bluetooth, near fieldcommunication (NFC), etc.). In such embodiments, the network-sideinterface 1502 comprises one or more antenna/radiating elements. Forexample, the network-side interface 1502 may include a single antenna,multiple separate antennas, or a multi-antenna array configured formulti-layer communication, e.g., single input multiple output (SIMO),multiple input single output (MISO), multiple input multiple output(MIMO), etc. In other embodiments, the transceiver 1500 transmits andreceives signaling over a wireline medium, e.g., twisted-pair cable,coaxial cable, optical fiber, etc. Specific processing systems and/ortransceivers may utilize all of the components shown, or only a subsetof the components, and levels of integration may vary from device todevice.

Although the present disclosure and its advantages have been describedin detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutionsand alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit andscope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for operating a transmitting deviceusing semi-orthogonal multiple access (SOMA) in a wireless local areanetwork (WLAN), the method comprising: generating, by the transmittingdevice, a frame including indicators, in accordance with channelinformation associated with a first receiving device and a secondreceiving device, of first and second QAM bit allocations, first andsecond coding rates, and first and second SOMA groups, the generatingthe frame comprising, for each SOMA group: populating a group identifierfield with a SOMA group identifier associated with the SOMA group, andpopulating a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field with a modulationand coding rate indicator for each receiving device associated with theSOMA group; and sending, by the transmitting device, the frame to thefirst receiving device and the second receiving device.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, the generating the frame further comprising populating a SOMAindication (SI) field with a SI indicator.
 3. The method of claim 2, thegenerating the frame further comprising populating the frame with anindicator of a first power allocation for the first receiving device anda second power allocation for the second receiving device.
 4. The methodof claim 3, the indicator in accordance with the channel informationassociated with the first receiving device and the second receivingdevice.
 5. The method of claim 4, the generating the frame furthercomprising populating subcarrier group fields with at least onesub-channel index indicator for each SOMA group.
 6. The method of claim2, the generating the frame further comprising: populating a number ofspatial streams (NSTS) field with an NSTS indicator indicating a numberof spatial streams used to transmit the frame; and populating a bitlevel field with indicators of QAM bits associated with the firstreceiving device and the second receiving device.
 7. The method of claim6, the sending the frame further comprising sending the frame in a highefficiency signal B (HE-SIGB) portion of a packet preamble.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, the generating the frame further comprisingpopulating subcarrier group fields with at least one sub-channel indexindicator for each SOMA group.
 9. A method for operating a firstreceiving device operating in a semi-orthogonal multiple access (SOMA)wireless local area network (WLAN), the method comprising: receiving aframe, by the first receiving device, having a first quadratureamplitude modulation (QAM) bit allocation, a first coding rate, and afirst SOMA group for the first receiving device and a second QAM bitallocation, a second coding rate, and a second SOMA group for a secondreceiving device in accordance with a frame, the frame comprising, foreach SOMA group: a group identifier field with a SOMA group identifier,and a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field with a modulation andcoding rate indicator for each receiving device associated with the SOMAgroup; receiving, by the first receiving device, a QAM symbol;demapping, by the first receiving device, the QAM symbol in accordancewith the first and second QAM bit allocations, thereby producing encodeddata; decoding, by the first receiving device, the encoded data inaccordance with the first and second coding rates, thereby producingdecoded data; and processing, by the first receiving device, the decodeddata.
 10. The method of claim 9, the frame further comprising: a SOMAindication (SI) field with a SI indicator.
 11. The method of claim 10,the frame further comprising: an indicator of a first power allocationfor the first receiving device and a second power allocation for thesecond receiving device.
 12. The method of claim 11, the frame furthercomprising: subcarrier group fields with at least one sub-channel indexindicator for each SOMA group.
 13. The method of claim 10, the framefurther comprising: a number of spatial streams (NSTS) field with anNSTS indicator indicating a number of spatial streams used to transmitthe frame; and a bit level field with indicators of QAM bits associatedwith the first receiving device and the second receiving device.
 14. Atransmitting device comprising: a processor; and a computer readablestorage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, theprogramming including instructions to configure the transmitting deviceto: generate a frame including indicators, in accordance with channelinformation associated with a first receiving device and a secondreceiving device, of first and second QAM bit allocations, first andsecond coding rates, and first and second SOMA groups, the instructionsto configure the transmitting device to generate the frame comprising,for each SOMA group, instructions to configure the transmitting deviceto: populate a group identifier field with a SOMA group identifierassociated with the SOMA group, and populate a modulation and codingscheme (MCS) field with a modulation and coding rate indicator for eachreceiving device associated with the SOMA group; and send the frame tothe first receiving device and the second receiving device.
 15. Thetransmitting device of claim 14, the programming including instructionsto configure the transmitting device to populate a SOMA indication (SI)field of the frame with a SI indicator.
 16. The transmitting device ofclaim 15, the programming including instructions to configure thetransmitting device to populate the frame with an indicator of a firstpower allocation for the first receiving device and a second powerallocation for the second receiving device.
 17. The transmitting deviceof claim 16, the programming including instructions to configure thetransmitting device to populate subcarrier group fields of the framewith at least one sub-channel index indicator for each SOMA group. 18.The transmitting device of claim 15, the programming includinginstructions to configure the transmitting device to populate a numberof spatial streams (NSTS) field of the frame with an NSTS indicatorindicating a number of spatial streams used to transmit the frame, andpopulate a bit level field of the frame with indicators of QAM bitsassociated with the first receiving device and the second receivingdevice.
 19. The transmitting device of claim 18, the instructions toconfigure the transmitting device to send the frame further comprisinginstructions to configure the transmitting device to send the frame in ahigh efficiency signal B (HE-SIGB) portion of a packet preamble.
 20. Thetransmitting device of claim 14, the instructions to configure thetransmitting device to generate the frame further comprisinginstructions to configure the transmitting device to populate subcarriergroup fields with at least one sub-channel index indicator for each SOMAgroup.